Taking a Shot
Stout math professor writes a young adult sports novel
Trevor Kupfer, photos by Leah Dunbar |
in sports fiction, Jeanne Foley’s novel Shooting
Two draws on her experience as a college
basketball coach.
It started when Jeanne was in a bookstore looking for a gift for her 13-year-old niece, Jamie. She had just started playing basketball, and Jeanne being a long-time college basketball coach, she hoped to find the kind of sports fiction that hooked her at that age, only this time with a female protagonist.
“What’s astounding to me is that I was looking in 1995,” Jeanne began, “but even now I’m looking to see what’s out there and there’s still not much.”
What female-fronted sports fiction that does exist either follows a loner gal (on a boys’ team or in an individual sport like gymnastics) or is team-based, but on a purely social level (like a softball team sponsored by a beauty parlor). Another recent example follows a girl with magic hightops that make her play better. Not exactly progressive stuff.
Jeanne’s book, however, combines her experience from coaching for Princeton, Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech, and Wyoming universities, but speaks to a normal young adult audience. The book follows a high school varsity team circa late-80s in a small Minnesota town that has its sights on a state championship. The 185 pages focus mostly on best friends Barb and Jamie, plus a new girl that brings big talent but throws off the team chemistry.
“I wanted to focus a lot on the sport and the team experience, and maybe a little on the coach’s perspective,” she said. “The sport is the primary focus, rather than secondary. That’s the way boys’ sports fiction is, so why not girls?”
The book is broken up into 34 short chapters, many starting with a newspaper clip that recounts the action from games. “I didn’t really intend to do that. As a coach, I wanted to get the play-by-play action in there, but that’s boring for most readers,” Jeanne said. “So as part of the story there’s a character who’s a senior and is cut from varsity, and rather than play JV, she decides to be the reporter.” This allows the rest of the book to bring you up to speed on the team behind the scenes, yet still build anticipation with the newspaper clips.
As a math professor at UW-Stout, Jeanne is no stranger to being published. But while she’s amassed lots of clips from academic journals, this is her debut in fiction. Its official release came in March at the high school state tournament, and you can imagine her excitement when the book came on the JumboTron at the Target Center.
“When I wrote it, at the time, I couldn’t see becoming a writer and leaving teaching, which I love. But now that I see people reading it and loving it, I might like to write a few more. Maybe more with basketball, or something with softball, which I coached for many years, too. And it just so happens that I have a sabbatical coming up next year. So, perfect timing!”
Given the great story of where the idea for the book came from, I just had to ask about her niece, Jamie. “She niece just turned 29 last week, and I finally gave her a copy,” Jeanne said with a laugh.
“So what’s the verdict?” I asked.
“She liked it, but she kind of had to. I mean, I named a character after her.”
Find a copy of Shooting Two at The Local Store (17 S. Barstow St.), or stop by on May 6 (6-9pm) for a signed copy and some words of wisdom from Jeanne.
